Innocent Killer
by CarlieD
Summary: It’s always Jasper that they keep an eye on. And I’m just as guilty as the rest of the family. But in reality, maybe it was me that we needed to watch: because when I snapped, I snapped badly. Maybe the worst mistake any of us have ever done.
1. Alice

**Innocent Killer**

_It's always Jasper that they keep an eye on. And I'm just as guilty as the rest of the family. But in reality, maybe it was me that we needed to watch: because when I snapped, I snapped badly. Maybe the worst mistake any of us have ever done._

AUTHOR'S NOTE: And to reassure you all, there will be a sequel to this. As a timeline reference, though, this is two moves before Forks (as in they'll live in one more place before Forks).

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of the Twilight characters or universe.

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

**Great Falls, MT (2001)**

It was still overcast right now, but the sun would be coming out in about an hour and a half, and that would stay for the remainder of the day. And we wouldn't be finished here for another two hours at least. More, if that Alex kid decided to make a run for a smoke. Less, mind you, if those drunk guys outside smashed a few windows.

The timing and the amount of people still on school property meant that getting to my car from the school would be extremely difficult. Maybe if I called Emmett and told him to 'steal' my car… No, maybe not. I was driving Rosalie's car, and she does love that BMW. Emmett drives everything like he drives his Jeep: recklessly. He's not allowed in the driver's seat of Rosalie's BMW.

She might let Jasper steal her car… No. Jasper wouldn't do that. And Edward was out of the question: Rosalie had sabotaged the engine on his Aston Martin a couple days ago. He'd wrap her BMW around a tree in retaliation.

Rosalie wouldn't steal her own car, and besides, she was one of us who needed to go on this hunt tonight the most. This weekend really wasn't about the hunting – it was more about letting all of us just be ourselves, without the scrutiny of human minds. It was really more of an apology trip for Carlisle to Emmett, Rosalie, Jasper and I: an apology for making us deny our most necessary relationships.

I fingered the cell phone in my pocket, contemplating a run to the washroom to call Carlisle and have him spring me. Fake a family emergency.

"Miss Cullen, maybe if you paid attention to your assignments, you could go home sooner," the teacher (I'd actually neglected to learn this one's name) called pointedly.

Detention was a new concept for us. Usually we were referred to as the 'best-behaved teenagers' our schools had ever seen. This time around, with the change in routine, we were getting into a lot more trouble. Short tempers, mostly. I'd never actually realized how short a fuse Emmett has when he's not allowed to be with Rosalie. Rosalie and Jasper have tempers, we all know that. But at least they were playing the same age, they could keep an eye on each other. Emmett and I were the worst for it: we were on our own. Edward, on the other hand, was the picture of perfection at his school (after, of course, being expelled from _our_ school on the first day for punching out one of the students – he told us all that we didn't want to know what the poor kid had been thinking about me).

It was actually very distressing for me, not being able to physically see or touch Jasper until we'd reached Emmett's aptly-named 'safety line'. Which, unfortunately, was at the garage door of our house. Of course, I could keep a mental eye on him through the day, but it wasn't the same as having the freedom to come deliver a congratulatory kiss after a particularly difficult class for having resisted his thirst. It wasn't the same as being able to complain of 'being sick' and steal him away for an afternoon of relative solitude.

And I hadn't seen him all day today. He had gone to school early with Rosalie for a term project in History (ironically, on the Civil War – Emmett had gotten a good laugh out of that one) with two other classmates, and the juniors had been gone all day from school on an outing to some sort of career symposium. He had been texting me throughout the day, but his self-control was wavering. He was thirsty. We were all thirsty, and the promise of three full days alone had been tormenting him, taunting him with how close and yet so far 6 PM was.

Sighing, I turned my attention back to the essay in front of me. The drunk kids outside were going to break a few windows in the administration office. We wouldn't be here too much longer.

Carefully, I slid out my phone from my pocket, flipping it open with one hand, the other writing something about the apathy of present society for my social studies paper. Faster than anybody in the room could see or hear, I quickly tapped out a message to Jasper.

_I'll be there soon. Probably no more than an hour, Jazz. Kids are about to vandalize school property._

In the distance, I heard the sounds of the windows breaking and the boys' raucous laughter. Within seconds, the security alarms had begun to blare, piercing my sensitive ears. It was one of the pitfalls of playing human: alarms were usually way too loud for our hearing to take for long. That was why Edward and I usually kept tabs on when our schools were scheduling alarm tests and fire drills.

In the chaos that followed, the teacher didn't notice my phone beginning to beep. As I opened it again, I read Jasper's return message with a smile:

_Hope you didn't encourage that sort of criminal activity, Lissy… Call Carlisle when you're out. I want my three days._

Rolling my eyes slightly, I sent a message back and packed up my things.

_I promise I will make it worth the wait. See you soon._

I had parked my car around the back in the far lot, away from where most students parked – partly in anticipation of the good weather later this afternoon, partly because Rosalie would burn me at the stake if something happened to her car.

Curious as to what the rest of the family had done to pass the time in the four hours that I'd managed to delay our departure with detention, I searched through the visions.

Emmett and Rosalie had had enough of waiting for me to get out of detention and Carlisle to get off work. They'd decided to leave on their hunt about an hour ago, and were busy making the most of it.

Electing not to watch any more of their activities, because it just made me wish I'd simply held my tongue in government class – if not for that, I could be doing the exact same thing with Jasper right now – I turned my attention to Carlisle. Carlisle was still working, the emergency room thrown into a frenzy because of a five-car pileup during the afternoon commute. He was contemplating staying later, sending Edward and Esme on ahead when I arrived.

Watching Carlisle reminded me that I needed to call the hospital and warn him that I was on my way.

Quickly, I dialed his office, not surprised when somebody picked up (and it wasn't him).

"_Dr Cullen's office,"_ came Edward's voice over the line.

"Hey, Edward," I said cheerfully, looking at the slowly clearing clouds above me. I'd have to pull up the top of the convertible. Were Rosalie's windows tinted? I couldn't remember. "Listen, I'm on my way to the hospital now. Tell Jasper to meet me at the front doors. You might want to call Esme and just go on without Carlisle – there's a five-car pileup in the ER. Actually, tell Jasper to avoid passing by the ER…"

"_Tell him yourself," _Edward interrupted me, and there was a shuffle of the phone being passed over.

"_Hey, Alice,"_ Jasper said, a distinct tone of pleasure in his voice. _"Are you out already?"_

"I told you, Jazz, kids are busy vandalizing school property," I laughed, looking ahead to disarm the car alarm.

There was no red M3 BMW convertible in the parking lot.

Despite myself, I swore. Loudly and colourfully. I picked up all sorts of bad habits from my beloved and my older brother. "Rosalie's going to burn me at the stake."

"_What?" _Jasper asked immediately, concern in his voice.

"Somebody stole her car."

"_Stole as in –"_ I heard Edward asking in the background, the sounds of keys rattling already evident nearby.

"Tell Edward as in some teenage mutant miscreant jacked her BMW!" I exclaimed. "And probably has totaled it by now –"

"_Calm down, Lissy. In the end, it's just a car, Rosalie'll buy another one. I'm on my way in Edward's car to pick you up now, all right? I'll be there in about forty-five minutes. Just… stay inside until I get there in case the sun decides to make an appearance, okay?"_

"All right, all right," I grumbled at him as I hung up and turned to head back inside.

I saw their intentions in a flash just a split-second before they came around the corner.

"Hey, look who it is, guys!" one called with the loud voice of a definite drunk. "Our pretty little friend… no brothers here to take an unmerited swing at Tyson this time."

One, two, three, four… oh, God, were there seriously ten of them coming towards me, closing all avenues of escape? The scent of their human blood drifting into my breath, slowly nibbling at my self-control? Was the sun seriously starting to come towards the end of the cloudbank?

"You know, I've never been able to breathe right since he broke my nose," Edward's outraged victim said with a growl.

'Listen,' I felt like telling him, 'my husband finds out you and your little buddies are trying to hit on me, he'll break more than your nose. He was a soldier, you know, he has no problem with killing. Oh, yeah, and he's a vampire who hasn't fed in weeks, so he's a little short-tempered…'

Why did Carlisle have to work across the city? Don't think about the blood. Don't think about the unbearable burn. You made it this far today, don't break concentration now…

_Some businessman in a car as equally ostentatious as Rosalie's now-stolen convertible cut Jasper off in traffic, taking the only opening he could see in the near future as he continued talking on his cell. Frustrated, Jasper blared his horn at the man, flipping him the finger angrily._

I quickened my pace slightly, maybe moving just a little faster than a human girl ought to have been able to, hoping to get to the back doors of the school before the school's custodian locked them and left for the night.

_He paused at the broken windows, shaking his white head in disgust. "Kids…" he muttered, going towards the back doors. Outside, he could see only a few of the boys looking at each other grinning. "Go home, you delinquents!" he howled, locking the doors securely._

"Go home, you delinquents!" I heard him shout.

"Not as talkative without a brother there to punch people, is she?" another boy commented.

Oh, if you only knew, you silly little human boy. You with your warm, wet, gushing blood… if you only knew, stupid, inconsequential human boy, that if I opened my mouth right now, you and all your little friends would be dead…

"Geez, you know, I wonder if she even talks at all without a brother there to punch people," a third said, stepping forward and reaching for my arm.

Instinctively, still focusing on _not_ attacking the poor defenseless human, I jerked back, saying through clenched teeth, "Don't touch me."

"Ooooh, she _does_ speak!"

"Aaron, I don't know, her brothers _are_ pretty damn big," one boy said, a note of uncertainty in his voice. "Have you _seen_ the one in the senior class? Guy's the fricking Hulk!"

"And the other one looks like he could hold his own in a fight, but neither of them are here, are they?" the first said in a mocking tone. "Come on, baby, what do you say we go somewhere a little more private?"

"Dude, nowhere's private with you around," another scoffed, and the insulted party went flying at him, smashing his fist into the guy's face…

And the second his blood started flowing, I lost my fragile hold on my self-control. Before I'd even fully realized what I was doing, I had lunged for the injured boy, desperate to get the pulsing, warm liquid into my body, to stop my terrible burning. Everything else was collateral damage.

And it was ecstasy. God, how had I ever thought that animal blood would be enough? How had I gone eighty years without _once_ tasting this?

I had drained four of them without once stopping before I realized that the thirst wasn't satisfied. And I didn't care how many more of these useless, fragile humans had to die for my thirst.

*~*~*~*~*

It seemed like eternity had passed when my feeding was interrupted by somebody strong grabbing my arm and yanking me away from the mutilated body.

"No!" I snarled, struggling against the tight grip.

"Alice, enough!" he ordered sternly, and I stopped, finally recognizing the voice behind me. Turning around, I looked at his eyes, darkened with thirst, but still with a hint of honey in them. They were scared, horrified, sympathetic. His grip shook slightly, and his blond hair was falling down around his face.

Carlisle. My father in all the ways which counted in this world of ours.

"Enough, Alice," he repeated, a little softer. And it was like _me_, who I was, came rushing back from my crazed state of dissociation. Like I had woken up after a really bad nightmare, only to realize that the nightmare was real.

Oh God, what had I done?

"Oh my God, Alice…" Edward's stunned voice came from above me.

"Oh, God…" I whispered, turning around to look at the destruction I'd wreaked on those boys.

"Edward, call Emmett and Rosalie," Carlisle said, his voice amazingly calm despite the situation at hand. "I'll call Esme. Jasper –"

He didn't even have to finish his sentence before Jasper had materialized at my side, lifting me easily up into his arms. Still stunned speechless, I wrapped my arms around his neck, burying my face into it. His muscles were tense, probably from the strain it was taking to stop himself from drinking the blood that was still spilling on the pavement.

"We'll meet you in Denali," he told Carlisle quietly. "Come on, Lissy. Let's get you out of here."

He deposited me lightly on the passenger side of Edward's car, tearing out of there as fast as he could. "Lissy, what happened back there?" he asked softly, reaching for my hand.

"I should've just kept my mouth shut," I whispered, shaking my head. "I should've just kept my mouth shut, and none of this would've happened…"

"Alice," he repeated, a little more urgently.

"Jasper, tell me that didn't actually happen," I pleaded suddenly, gripping his hand tightly. "It's just… it's just another bad vision. I didn't really –"

Jasper was silent, rubbing his thumb lightly over my knuckles. "I'm sorry, baby," he finally said quietly. "What happened?"

"I…" I stopped again, the human instinct to gag wanting to surface. "They… God, Jazz, I want it _out_ of me!" I nearly shrieked. "All of it, I want it _gone_…"

"I'm sorry, Lissy," he repeated.

"Oh, Jasper, I really did kill ten boys, didn't I?" I whispered, the horror taking over as my main emotion again. Closing my eyes, I tried to focus on the image of Carlisle and Edward back at the school, rapidly gathering together the mutilated bodies, dousing their cars and the remains with the leftover alcohol. The more I watched, the greater my anxiety became. Nobody, absolutely nobody – not Emmett, not Jasper – had ever put the family in so much disarray and danger as I just had, and who was busy cleaning up my mess? Carlisle and Edward, putting themselves at risk of exposure and death – the wind was picking up, and Carlisle was cautiously setting fire to the entire site, risking the winds blowing the flames in his direction.

"Alice, stop," Jasper said, and for the first time, I realized how tense his voice was. "I can't concentrate on the road." Because he was too busy trying to work his way out of the mire of my emotional trauma. Trying to calm himself and trying to keep me from going into absolute hysterics. "Just… try not to think about it for a while, okay? At least until we reach state lines?"

I nodded without another word and tried to think of other things. What else could I think about?

Denali. We were going to Tanya and the rest of the family. We hadn't really met the Denalis yet. Just heard about them in passing from Carlisle, and from the others. The last time that they'd come to see the Cullens, it had been about a year before Jasper and I had come to the family. It would be nice to finally meet the extended family.

I could feel Jasper's muscles slowly relax in his hand as I forced my thoughts to stay on wondering what the Denalis were like.

*~*~*~*~*

"Okay, Lissy," Jasper finally said, pulling off the road into a dark, secluded mountain road. "Come with me." Taking my hand, he pulled me into the backseat and nestled my body against his securely. "Tell me all about it," he whispered. "What happened?"

"No," I whispered. "No more…"

"Lissy, I need to know," he murmured into my ear.

"No, you don't. I don't want you to know…"

Suddenly, he pulled me beneath him on the seat, pinning me between his arms as he looked me straight in the eyes, his charcoal black eyes boring into my bright crimson eyes. "Alice Whitlock, if you think that I love you any less because of what happened…" he growled, kissing me.

I flinched at the sound of my name. Very rarely since we'd joined the Cullens had we used our true names. I'd almost venture to say that we'd never once used them. And yet hearing it come from his perfect mouth, reminding me that we were together in this, that the first name I could remember having was his, it was almost more than I could bear.

I couldn't stand it. I couldn't stand to have him, so strong and perfect and _pure_, be defiled by my actions, by my very presence. To be destroyed with me when the Volturi heard about the mass murder I'd just committed…

His lips made their way down my throat as he whispered, "And don't even think for a second about leaving. Because I'll just follow you."

"Jazz, please…" I begged as he undid the buttons on my shirt. "You don't understand…"

"Oh, I understand, baby," he countered. "Do you think I haven't felt all that before? That I don't think exactly the same things every time that _I_ mess up?"

"You don't mess up like this," I whispered, moaning as his kisses continued to trail down my front. "This is bad."

He paused, thinking over his response. "Yes," he finally replied. "This is bad. But it doesn't change a thing, Lissy."


	2. Emmett

A/N: I feel so bad, because I have so many WIPs in the HP and NCIS realms, which have all been abandoned in wake of my new Twilight obsession. I actually have one multi-realm reader who reviewed Innocent Killer (after not having updated any of my fics for months because of my heavy workload at university) and said "Glad to see you're still alive." I feel so bad! This is why all my WIPs in Twilight aren't getting uploaded until they're just about done. So I'm not stuck in this situation again.

Anyway, so I had _another_ reader who asked if I would do any more for this story, and of course, that got my creative juices flowing… So here's Emmett on the day Alice turned into a mass murderer.

These are just a series of one-shots, but since they all fall under the same storyline, they'll get uploaded as chapters in Innocent Killer. I'm also working on Pain and Pride, the sequel to this story.

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

It must've been the hardest day I'd ever suffered through. But not nearly as hard for me, I have to say, as it must've been for Alice.

For me, it all started at 6 AM, when Jasper (rather rudely, I might add) interrupted Rose and me in the middle of some _very_ important business. He'd been snarly and growly and basically a bad-ass brother ever since we'd arrived in Great Falls, only to be told to pretty much ignore our wives outside the house.

Of course, it probably didn't help our cause any when Alice and I kept getting thrown in detention for acting up. It gave us sympathy points with Esme, who of course had to field all those phone calls from the 'concerned faculty'. It gave us no brownie points with Carlisle.

So, anyway, so Jasper was yelling at Rosalie to get her ass moving, because they have some history project that they had to meet their other partners for at 7. Needless to say, she wasn't about to listen to him, because _I'm_ a far more interesting person to be around, and besides, we were in a pretty awkward position. So she was yelling back at him that he already knows more about the Civil War than the rest of the damn world, leave her alone.

I could hear Alice busy trying to smooth over Jasper's ruffled feathers even from down the hall. Since we hadn't fed in weeks, everybody was a little crankier than usual, and Jasper cranky is _not_ something we like enduring. It's amazing the things Alice can get that moody ex-soldier to do for her. There was no way in heaven or hell that Edward or I would ever agree to half of Alice's crazy schemes.

Edward, speak of the devil, was busy composing in the basement. The poor kid had to live with us for all these past months, I didn't blame him for going to the one place in the house where you can't physically hear anybody and then try drown us out mentally with his music.

Carlisle and Esme were in some sort of super-secret powwow all night, judging from the low, constant voices coming from their room. It's never a good thing when Carlisle and Esme hold their secret little meetings. Last time they did that, Jasper and I had ended up with the short end of the stick in the living arrangements.

"Emmett," Rosalie said, nibbling at my lower lip as I got momentarily distracted by listening to Carlisle and Esme. "Emmett, if you don't pay attention, I'm going to leave, get dressed and go work on school projects with cranky ex-Confederate majors."

"Hmm?" I asked, returning my attention to my lovely wife. "Oh, no, don't do that."

"_Rosalie!"_ Jasper roared.

I heard Alice exclaim, _"Jasper!"_, in a rebuking voice.

Rosalie sighed reluctantly and sat up. "I guess I'd better go before he starts tearing down walls."

"All right, fine," I grumbled, watching as she unfolded herself from my body and crossed our room to our closet – well, her closet, really. I had about one foot of hanging space and two drawers. "I like the green one," I spoke up, as Rosalie studied a green dress in one hand and a black sweater in the other.

"Oh, do you?" Rosalie asked with a smile.

"Mmm-hmm," I replied, nodding sagely. "Gives me plenty of fantasy fodder for the day. I can lust at you from afar with that dress on."

"It's a shame you won't get to see me in it, then," Rosalie laughed, hanging the sweater back up and digging out various other articles of clothing.

"What?" I asked.

"Jasper and I are gone all day," she told me with another laugh. "Juniors' trip to the career symposium, remember?"

"Oh, great," I grumbled, already imagining the temper tantrum Jasper was going to throw when he remembered that.

"Just promise to keep an eye on Alice, would you? He's going to annoy me all day, otherwise," Rosalie sighed, pulling on her lingerie set – a favourite of mine. When she caught me eyeing her appreciatively, she smiled. "I'll make it up to you tonight, Em, I promise."

She quickly finished dressing, brushing out her hair and applying just a touch of make-up. "Come on, let's go do this thing…"

"Guys?" Carlisle called. "Can I see everybody in the dining room?"

"Great, now what?" Rosalie muttered, as I grabbed her and made as if to carry her downstairs over my shoulder. "Emmett Cullen, don't you _dare_ –" She glowered at me as I set her down again.

"C'mon, baby, don't go away _mad_..." I begged, following closely behind her. "Let's just hope they haven't tightened the restrictions to _inside_ the house, too."

"Oh, don't even put the thought in his mind…" Rosalie muttered darkly.

We passed Jasper and Alice in their room. Alice had him cornered, her arms crossed stubbornly, her eyes wide and her lip jutting out ever so slightly. Classic Alice-wants-her-way look. Jasper was powerless against it.

"Behave," I heard her say pleadingly. "Make it until 4 PM, and then you have three whole days…"

"Alice, what's going on?" I asked, pausing at her door.

"I'm still waiting!" Carlisle called, a little irritably.

"Esme's talked Carlisle in letting all of us have some uninterrupted alone time this weekend," Alice said, turning around even as she reached for Jasper's hand to pull him along. "Tonight through until Monday morning. They're calling it a hunt, but we're on our own for it." Her eyes sparkled with excitement.

"Ah, so that's what the powwow was all about last night," I said, grinning when Rosalie barely stifled the squeal of delight and kissed my cheek.

"No detention today," she said threateningly. "Hold your tongue no matter how _stupid_ the other guy is. I don't want _anything _delaying this weekend."

"As you wish, milady," I said with a mock English accent, bowing. "I will be the most perfect husband you have ever had."

Rosalie laughed. "Em, you are the _only_ husband I have ever had, and the only one I ever _will _have," she murmured into my ear.

"Love you, baby," I said with another grin, wrapping an arm around her waist as she pinned me lightly against the hallway wall. Jasper and Alice had slipped past us to head downstairs.

"Love you, Emmett," she returned. She slid her leg between mine, arching her back just enough to brush her hips across mine. I ducked my head down to kiss the tempting cleavage she'd left exposed. She'd cover up again before she and Jasper left, but for right now, I'd take what I could get.

Rosalie let out a gasp as I carefully moved the neckline of her dress aside to expose more skin. "Emmett, not now…" she murmured. "Later. This afternoon…" Her protests trailed off as I kissed her sensitive nipple, eliciting a groan of pleasure. Her hands went for my belt buckle, fumbling to undo it. "Emmett…" She unzipped my jeans, sliding her soft and able hands into my briefs to take me into them.

Now it was my turn to groan, as she began massaging, my lips ravaging her neck hungrily. Desperately, I reached for the hem of the dress, and Rosalie understood my intentions perfectly as she slid –

"_ROSALIE and EMMETT! I KNOW you're UP there, get DOWN here NOW!"_

Groaning, Rosalie stopped, reluctantly pulling away and rearranging her dress uncomfortably. "He's cranky."

"He's cranky," I agreed, gingerly repacking everything into my jeans. "And obviously as frustrated as I am. Esme's probably withheld from him until we're all actually gone tonight."

"Poor boy…" Rosalie crooned. "We'll take care of that before I leave."

We joined the rest of the family in the dining room, sliding into the last available seats. Unfortunately, those seats weren't side-by-side. "What is it, Carlisle?" I asked, wincing as my jeans fought desperately with my arousal, and fervently wishing that I was Edward right now, because it was him caught between Rosalie and I in our love-lust-battle. Poor kid.

If I was Edward, I knew exactly what I'd be doing. I'd be slowly easing my hand over Rose's thigh, working my way up towards where I knew her centre would be wet and waiting… She would hit my arm with her hand the second I got there, her face not showing any of the shock at my brazen attempts to publicly pleasure her. But she wouldn't be able to keep it hidden for long.

Alice started giggling uncontrollably as Edward whirled around to glare at me. "Emmett!" he snapped.

It clicked just a fraction of a second too late for me. I'd been thinking about what I'd be doing if I was _Edward_. And I'd meant every second of it. Which meant that Alice had seen Edward, not me, doing all of those sensual ministrations. And he'd seen the images in Alice's mind.

"Do you _mind_?!" Edward continued snappishly.

"Not at all," I replied with a grin.

Alice was still laughing hysterically – I watched Jasper's face become a little concerned at her drama.

"Can we get back to the topic at hand?" Carlisle demanded.

*~*~*

"Behave," Rosalie and Alice said, almost in unison as we all entered the garage.

"You hear me?" Rosalie murmured into my ear as Jasper headed for his car, Alice tailing him stubbornly. "No fights, no mouthing off… If you call me at 2, and tell me you've gotten detention, I will be hunting with Edward all weekend."

Alice nearly cracked up again, managing to stifle the laughter into Jasper's jacket.

"And are you going to tell me what was so funny?" Rosalie demanded, turning around. Alice shook her head mutely. "Ugh. Fine. Let's go, Jasper, we're already late."

As they were getting into the car, Rosalie paused. "All right, fine, Alice, you can take the M3. But don't let Emmett anywhere _near_ the driver's seat."

Alice was still giggling as our respective spouses left.

*~*~*

Our somewhat lightened moods ended almost as soon as Alice pulled into the parking spot at school. Still feeling slightly emasculated at having my kid sister drive me (even though I wasn't allowed to drive _anybody's_ car other than my own), I jumped out without opening the door, just as Alice was saying, "I wouldn't –"

There was a groan of metal crumpling. I looked down, wincing as I saw the dent I'd caused. The paint had cracked along the dent. "Oh, no." There was no way Rosalie wasn't going to notice that.

"I warned you," Alice said with a sigh.

"Great…" I muttered. "Great… Come on, let's go."

*~*~*

I could almost hear Rosalie's voice screeching in my head as I stopped myself. _"So help me, Emmett, if you rip that kid's head off…"_

Growling under my breath, I got a hold on my instincts and tightened my grip on my schoolbag as I made my way through the crowds of students to reach Alice.

Obviously the stupid kid couldn't read body language. For every inch he took forward, she took two back. She wasn't looking at him, clearly wasn't listening to him, and she had her books held against her front protectively with one arm, the other typing something on her phone. Probably a text from Jasper – he was bad for that, texting her in the middle of the day.

"… And I was sort of thinking, that, you know, maybe we ought to go out tonight, get to know each other…"

"Allie, is this yahoo bothering you?" I asked as I came up beside her, fixing my deadliest death-glare on the poor, unsuspecting human boy.

"Oh, hi, Emmett!" she said cheerfully, and I caught a glimpse of some meaningless drivel that screamed 'Jasper!' on her phone's screen as she closed it.

"I was just seeing if Alice would like to go out for dinner tonight," the boy replied defiantly – I had to admire the kid's guts, I had to be three times his size.

"And I'm pretty sure she told you no last week."

"What can I say, I'm pleasantly persistent," the boy shrugged.

"No, you're harassing her. Scram before I knock your teeth out." And be glad it's me and not Jasper, because _he_ would've knocked your teeth out long ago. It worked, though, because the boy took off at a stumbling run and Alice turned to me gratefully.

"Thanks, Emmett."

"You really need to learn how to tell people where to shove it," I told her, watching her play with the chain around her neck, the wedding ring hidden beneath the neckline of her shirt. Unlike Rosalie, Alice had always kept her wedding ring perfect and whole, usually wearing it on the chain with Jasper's band when our story didn't allow for them to wear it on their fingers. Her story to anybody who asked was typically that they were her dead parents' rings, passed down from her grandparents. It never hurt that the rings _were_ slightly age-worn – 52 years, in fact. "Rosalie could give you lessons."

"But why should _I_ do it, when I have all of you around, ferociously guarding my virtue?" Alice asked with a smile, widening her eyes innocently. "And Rosalie wants another one, by the way. She's just decided it now."

"I figured she did," I grumbled. "It's always the first sign, when the ring turns into a necklace or a bracelet or earrings…"

"All right, I have to go to class," Alice sighed, and there was a distinct displeasured tone in her voice.

"Which one?" I asked, shooting another warning glare at a group of sophomores who looked ready to accost her.

"Government," she replied unenthusiastically. "Did I mention that the teacher hates me?"

"Aw, that's all right, you don't like him either, Allie. Just one more hour, and then we're gone for the whole long weekend. Well, not _us_, precisely, but…"

Her eyes lit up at that. "You're right, there _is_ only one more hour!" Immediately, it was as if the clouds had lifted and sunlight had come into her mood.

*~*~*

I was happily, oh-so-happily, anticipating the second I would see Rosalie, because it was creeping ever closer, when my phone rang.

Speak of my angel.

"Yes, Rose?" I said, yanking open my locker door to dump all my school stuff in there.

"_Listen, I'm on my way to pick you up, because Alice just called Jasper and announced that she got detention and you are NOT touching the keys to my convertible. Please tell me _you_ don't have detention too."_

"I was a good boy," I replied with a grin, sending a sympathetic grimace in Alice's direction as she stormed, fuming, towards the detention hall. "Oh, boy, she's mad."

"_Nothing compared to Jasper, I can assure you. I'll probably be about forty-five minutes, I've gotta drop Jasper off at the hospital first. Edward's going to lend him his car, and then he'll go back with Carlisle."_

"Then who's driving the M3?" I asked as I glanced outside. Still nonstop clouds. Sighing, I opened the doors and walked out.

"_Oh yeah. Jasper, you don't need Edward's car. Alice has mine. Tell her to pick you up at the hospital…"_

"_Rosalie, would you PLEASE watch the road?"_ I heard Jasper howl, and the sounds of blaring horns. _"I am VERY fond of this car, I don't want it totaled!"_

"I'll see you later, baby," I laughed, hanging up to the sounds of Rosalie and Jasper bickering. God, sometimes they acted more like siblings than any of the rest of us.

*~*~*

Rosalie arrived right on time, pulling up to the doors with an expectant look on her face. I jumped in, and after another quick look around the deserted schoolyard, I kissed her swiftly. "All right, let's get out of here, angel."

"What's your hurry, Emmett?" she asked with a laugh, tearing out of the loop with maybe just a touch more of a lead foot than Rosalie normally used.

"I fully intend on picking up where we left off this morning as soon as we hit city limits," I replied, noticing for the first time that she'd shed the camisole, cardigan and leggings which had made the dress acceptable for school wear. "Maybe even sooner," I amended, as I slid a hand beneath the hem of her dress.

"Emmett, would you _not_ distract me while I'm driving –" Rosalie gasped as I reached her centre. "Emmett, I'm serious…" She moaned, barely managing to make the turn while I was busy driving her slowly mad. "_Em_…"

"Pull into an alleyway, Rose…" I breathed into her ear. "Pull into a nice, dark alley and I'll show you heaven."

"Oh, _God,_ Emmett, not in _Jasper's_ car…" she groaned.

"Why not?" I challenged, feeling slightly sorry for the poor guy as I thought of him, stuck in Carlisle's office with Edward while Alice was in detention. "You know he's going to jump her in _your_ car the second she pulls into the hospital parking lot."

"There are some things in life that are beyond sacred, Em…" She gasped, parking the car and quickly pulled my hand away. "We sort of agreed to leave each other's car out of this weekend's… activities. Car-sex should only be done in one's _own_ car."

I sighed, kissing her again. "Well, I guess we should swing by home and pick up my Jeep, then. Leave this car in the garage for Jasper and Alice. Save your car from any possible damage –" Speaking of damage to the beloved M3, I should've probably told her about the dent.

Nah. It could wait.

*~*~*

"Emmett, Emmett, that's your phone," Rosalie gasped, as I surfaced briefly from our tangled bodies to find the source of our interruption, so I could destroy it. "Or my phone. Or both…"

"Leave it," I said with a growl, abandoning my search in favour of plundering her mouth desperately. I'd lost track of time – we must've been gone at least a few hours. We'd gotten our hunting over and done with in the first hour, so I had the distinct pleasure of watching amber instead of coal. Rosalie's eyes always told me everything that she wouldn't voice aloud, and she was much easier to read when she wasn't thirsty.

"Emmett, we can't," she protested, wriggling away. "What if it's Carlisle?"

The phone started ringing again, and growling in frustration, I dug through the shredded remains of our clothes, trying to find the offending phone. Finally, I located the ringing one – mine – and glanced at the call display. Edward.

Rosalie sat up to look at me as I scowled at the phone, waiting for Edward to give up. Man, I was not answering unless it was Carlisle. "Em?"

"Nothing, baby, just Edward. He can wait until Monday," I replied, finally silencing the ring and returning to her.

Now Rosalie's phone started ringing.

"Leave it," I said warningly, pinning her back down on the seat. "He can wait until Monday."

"That's not Edward's ring," she replied. "Pass me my purse, baby."

"I don't care. Nothing, _nothing_, is interrupting my weekend," I muttered, even as I reached across and pulled her purse off the passenger side seat. Rosalie sighed and opened it, trying to work her arms around my head as I returned to her neck hungrily.

She finally pulled out the phone and flipped it open. "Yes, Carlisle?"

I stopped for a second, until I heard Edward snap something on the other end of the line.

"Go away, Edward," I growled loud enough for him to hear.

"Edward, that was low," Rosalie snarled. "You _know_ Carlisle only calls in an emergency, you _knew_ I'd only answer to his cell, don't take advantage of it like that. Tell me on Monday." She hung up and threw the phone aside, moaning as I pulled her legs apart and began to reach for her wet, well-loved mound again. "Emmett, don't tease like this…" she groaned as I delivered quick, little, fleeting touches. "Just take me with –" She stopped as her phone started ringing again, a different ring this time. "God, our family has the best timing," she groaned, reaching for it.

"Who is it this time?" I asked, burying my face between her breasts in frustration.

"Esme." Sighing, Rosalie flipped her phone open. "Yes, Esme?"

Esme's frantic voice filtered through.

"Okay, okay, calm down, Esme. We left early. What's going on?" Rosalie said in a calming voice, sitting up slowly. "What about Alice?" Her face froze.

"What, Rose? What is it?" I asked with a frown.

"Is she all right?" Rosalie asked. "Okay, so where are we meeting you? She _did_ clean up, right?"

"Rose, what's going on?" I asked again. As she hung up, she looked at me.

"We're going to Denali. Alice just killed a bunch of students at the school."


	3. Carlisle

A/N: And heeeeere's Carlisle!

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

"Carlisle?" Esme asked softly as she entered our room. "Can I talk with you for a minute?"

"Of course, darling," I said immediately, setting aside my book. It was getting harder and harder to concentrate on it, anyway, with the way Emmett and Rosalie were going at each other tonight. Even Alice and Jasper had been more 'public' as of late. "What is it?" I asked, closing my arm around her waist.

"I think we might've made a mistake, Carlisle," she said quietly, nestling into my side. "I think we're pushing them farther than they're capable of stretching."

She didn't need to elaborate any more than that – as if I hadn't noticed the dark glares Jasper had been shooting me lately, the rebellious mutters under Emmett's breath. As if I hadn't noticed how Rosalie lingered in the mornings, stalling their departure as long as possible. As if I hadn't noticed how Alice had become permanently attached to Jasper in the house, her need for his constant presence so obvious to anybody who saw her.

"I got another call from the school yesterday afternoon," she continued, and again, she didn't need to elaborate. "Alice flew off the handle at a teacher…"

"Well, I don't know what we can do about it now, Esme," I sighed. "We'll go back to the way it was when we move again."

"I just… I worry, Carlisle," she said. "I don't think it's _safe_ to keep forcing them like this. Especially when everybody's so thirsty right now… I mean, we're playing with fire here. What if Jasper or Emmett snaps one day?"

"It's a long weekend coming up," I told her, surprised when she turned away from my kiss. "We'll go hunting. All of us."

"I think you owe them more than that, Carlisle," she replied, looking at the door meaningfully as we heard Jasper start yelling for Rosalie. Was it really morning already?

"_Leave me the HELL ALONE, Jasper!"_ Rosalie yelled back. _"You already know more about the Civil War than the rest of the damn world! What's your rush?"_

"They've been giving it a really good try, Carlisle," Esme continued, stopping me when I leaned in to try and kiss her again. "They deserve some kind of reward."

I racked my brains, trying to think of something, anything, really, that she would consider adequate. Then maybe she'd let me kiss her. I knew what she was trying to prove. Trying to make me sympathetic to their plight. "Well, tell me what, then, because I'm out of ideas."

"_Just calm down, Jasper,"_ I heard Alice cajole. _"She'll come down soon enough… Come here."_

"_God, I don't think I'm going to make it through today…"_ Jasper groaned in return.

"_Yes, you will," _she replied with gentle confidence. _"Get through today, and we'll go hunting tonight. Just the two of us, okay?"_

And then it hit me. I knew exactly what Esme had been angling for.

I heard Alice stop midway through another soft sentence and then let out a cry of excitement.

Esme smiled at me, then stopped me for an infuriating third time when I leaned in again. "You can suffer through until tonight like the rest of them," she said affectionately.

*~*~*

They probably noticed my short temper at the hospital. I was _so_ not used to Esme denying affection to anybody, let alone me.

"Carlisle, is everything all right?" Richard asked warily as I growled under my breath once I'd hung up with Esme.

I sighed and tried to get a grip on myself. "Yeah. My kids are acting up again, that's all. I'm getting sick of their attitudes, and Esme's on their side."

"You know, you _do_ have the option of sending them back," he commented, returning his attention to the chart in front of him. "I guess that's the bonus of fostering, hey? There are days I wish I could pack Josh's bags and send him to somebody else."

"No. That's not an option." Although I _did_ have the option of kicking them all out for a decade or two… that was an intriguing concept. But Esme would never forgive me for that. Any kicking out had to be done by Esme.

"Martyr…" Richard laughed. "Not many guys your age are willing to kill their life like that. I mean, how many do you have again?"

"Five," I replied absently.

"All teenagers?"

"Yes. One senior, two juniors, two sophomores. None of whom are going to be in school for much longer at the rate they're going."

*~*~*

Edward arrived first after school, slipping into my office almost unnoticed. "Hey, Carlisle," he greeted quietly.

_Sit down, do homework, be quiet,_ I ordered silently, still fuming over the latest call that I'd ignored from Esme.

"Wow, somebody's miffed," Edward commented, pulling out a science textbook. "What did _I_ do?"

"Nothing," I muttered, opening another file to look over.

Jasper stormed in just then, glowering at Edward before he dropped into the other chair. "I can't believe she did that," he growled. "'Behave, Jasper. Don't do anything to mess up this weekend.'" Growling again, he yanked out a book and opened it. "I'm on my best damn behaviour all day, didn't even snap at Rosalie… Meanwhile, _she's_ busy mouthing off to teachers, calling them idiot morons who couldn't teach a goldfish how to swim… Now we can't leave until 5, Rosalie's got my car which means we have to go back _home_ and switch cars, which means we won't _get _there until 6 because then Alice is going to want to change and pack clothes and…"

"Bitter much?" Edward asked with a slight smile.

"Shut up or I'm going to rip your head off," Jasper threatened, just as the door to my office opened and Richard looked in.

"Ah, Carlisle, I can confer you a moment?" he asked, eyebrow rising at Jasper's threat.

"Of course, Richard," I said, getting to my feet quickly. Jasper's unhappiness was having an effect on the rest of us, however subtly it might have been – any more depression or anger on my part, and I was going to snap. "The two of you, behave," I added warningly. "No fistfights in the hospital. I mean it."

"Hospital's the best place for a fistfight," Edward countered with a slight grin in my direction, edging away from Jasper, who was glaring at his book as though trying to make it burst into flames.

"I'm serious," I warned again as the door closed behind me. "God help me if I don't rip somebody's head off this weekend," I groaned.

"Oh, yeah, you're going camping, aren't you?" Richard laughed. "That should be interesting. When are you leaving?"

"They're waiting for me to get off work. Then we've got to rendezvous with Alice…"

"Well, then, we should hope there's no five-car pileups on the afternoon commute, hey?" Richard asked with a grin.

"Maybe we _should_," I muttered.

*~*~*

"Where did Jasper go?" I asked as I entered my office some hours later to find only Edward waiting.

"Alice called. They let detention out early and somebody stole Rosalie's car, so Jasper's taking my car to get her. Are you almost done?" He paused for a second. "Nope. All right, um, well, Esme actually called and said you'd better be on your way soon. I think she's getting lonely – Rosalie and Emmett already left early for their weekend."

I sighed, a momentary flash of sinister payback in my mind.

"Don't be mean to my mother," Edward rebuked with a grin. "She misses you. She said –" The rest of his sentence got cut off by the phone ringing. "I'll bet you anything that that's her. Pick up, it's _your_ phone and I'm not your secretary."

Sighing again, I picked up the phone, glancing at the call display. "Yes, Alice?"

There was no immediate answer, only an unfamiliar voice saying something indistinct and then a shout of surprise as there came an inhuman snarl.

The snarl of a vampire going for the kill. Chaos burst through on the other end of the line and there was the faint sound of tearing flesh.

"Edward, get the Mercedes running," I said quickly, throwing him the keys as he jumped to his feet, grabbing his bag – he'd heard them through my thoughts.

"You don't think Alice actually…"

"I'm not taking chances," I replied. "Don't run, but please don't take your time. We're going to need to fly all the way there."

Hanging up the phone, I hesitated only a fraction of a second before I put my pager down on the desk. So much for Great Falls. Where to next?

*~*~*

"Jasper, where are you?" I asked, setting the phone down on the dash as we peeled out of the underground parkade at a dangerous speed.

"_Stuck in traffic on the interstate,"_ Jasper seethed, the sounds of him slamming onto the horn filtering through. _"Idiot! Can't you see _turn signals_, you piece of –"_

Edward looked at me, worry in his eyes even as the both of us rolled our eyes at Jasper's horrible affinity for road rage. "Go around to the perimeter highway, Carlisle. Driver about three cars down just came off there, it's clear all the way to the high school."

"_Why? What's going on, Carlisle?"_ Jasper demanded, as the Volvo's engine roared.

"Just get to the school as fast as you can, Jasper," I said tightly. "And then head to Denali."

"_What's happened? Did something happen to Alice?" _he asked, voice taking on a definite tone of panic. _"She hasn't called me."_

"I'm not concerned about what's happened to Alice," I replied vaguely.

"We're more concerned about what she's done," Edward finished grimly.

*~*~*

Jasper was there when we'd finally pulled into the parking lot. He was still in his car, however, seemingly frozen in shock.

"Oh my God…" Edward breathed, looking at me in horror. "Carlisle, her thoughts don't make sense. It's like she's not even thinking…"

"She probably isn't, Edward," I answered quietly, opening my door. "Her first taste of human blood in 80 years? Alice is likely running on full instincts. No thought process whatsoever. First things first – we have to stop her."

"Carlisle, she –"

"And we have to cover this up. Start thinking of ways to dispose of all this. I'm going after her."

"Well, don't go alone!" Edward exclaimed, scrambling out of the door after me, Jasper in close, yet wary pursuit.

"Carlisle, be careful," Jasper started to say, as I grabbed Alice roughly by the arm and yanked her away.

She let out an irate screech of protest, trying to free herself. I tightened my grip in resolution and snapped, "Alice, enough!" It was horrible, terrifying as I looked at the destruction before me and realized she had done it all. I had no idea that Alice was even physically, mentally or emotionally capable of this. Not even Edward in his darkest days, Emmett at his least-controlled state, Rosalie in her utmost rage had ever done anything to this magnitude. I had no idea what Jasper had done in his soldiering days, but that might've been the only thing I could think of to rival this massacre…

This was bad enough that the Volturi might take notice.

She froze at the sound of my voice, turning around to look at me with wild eyes as red as a newborn.

"Enough, Alice," I repeated, a little more gently, watching as the wildness faded, being replaced by horrified shock. I kept a tight hold on her arm, but pushed back the hair that had fallen into her eyes.

"Oh my God, Alice…" Edward breathed from behind me.

"Oh, God…" she whispered, slowly turning around again.

We had to get out of here, and get out of here now. The best way was to do this as efficiently as possible – emergency room style. Give orders and expect them to be followed. Make the major decisions myself. "Edward, call Emmett and Rosalie. I'll call Esme." I started pulling Alice's trembling body further from the scene, saying "Jasper –"

I didn't have to finish the sentence. Jasper came, seemingly from out of nowhere, and lifted his wife into his arms, his face set tight in stubborn resistance. Alice buried her face into his neck, tearless sobs racking her body.

"We'll meet you in Denali," he murmured, whispering into Alice's ear, "Come on, Lissy, let's get you out of here." She only moaned quietly as he sprinted back to Edward's car and tore out of the parking lot.

Esme had picked up the second my call had connected. _"Well, finally, Carlisle, I've been phoning all day –"_

"Esme, stop. Listen to me. Get ready to leave right now. We have to make a run for Denali."

"_What happened?"_

"Don't. Edward and I'll explain on the way."

"Pick up your damn phones!" Edward howled at his cell. No surprise that Emmett and Rosalie weren't answering to his number. "Carlisle, I need your phone. You're the only one they're going to pick up on."

"_Carlisle, are you –"_

"I'm fine, Esme, we'll see you within the hour." I hung up abruptly and tossed my cell at Edward. "Grab those liquor bottles around the corner. We're going to stage a drunken game of chicken gone horribly wrong."

Sighing, Edward began dialing again, and I said sharply, "Talk while you're working, Edward, we don't have much time!"

Nodding, he ran off, and I could hear him ripping a shred into Rosalie.

I counted in my mind as I dragged the empty cars over, crushing the fronts of both in, and then loading bodies into them. Ten. Ten altogether. God, this just kept getting worse.

"God!" Edward growled as he returned, tossing the bottles at me. "She hung up on me! The nerve!"

"Call Esme," I sighed. "Ask her to call them. Douse it. As much as we can."

*~*~*

Esme was waiting anxiously on the front porch when I pulled up on the street, sliding into the passenger seat quickly. "Did she really?" she asked softly.

"Carlisle, not so fast, we'll attract attention," Edward said quietly from the backseat, dialing somebody on his phone. "Hey, where are you?" he paused, Jasper's indistinct voice echoing in the car. "How's she holding up?" He waited again while Jasper answered. "All right. Well, do you know how to get to the Denalis?"

Esme looked over at me. "I think we've learnt our lesson about avoiding gossip," she whispered to me, reaching out to touch my hand.

"Yes, I have," I muttered.


	4. Rosalie

A/N: Wow, this is turning into a whole epic… And it started out as a little one-shot. Aw, how fast they all grow up. ;D

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

Nobody can leave anybody alone in this family.

That's really how everything starts, anyway. And Edward, Alice and Jasper are always, _always_ the instigators. Edward hears something, or Alice sees something, or Jasper senses something and suddenly everybody's in your business.

And it's even worse when you _know_ it's about you, and nobody will say _anything_. So, yeah, I was a little ticked when Edward started reaming out Emmett at the meeting, and Alice was laughing like a deranged pixie.

Probably something Emmett was doing in his mind, which at this point in the morning probably featured me. Which means, naturally, that I should know what's going on.

But nobody will tell me.

*~*~*

"You're telling me that you don't have any clue what that was all about?" I demanded as Jasper turned onto the freeway.

"Nope, but I can take an educated guess," Jasper replied.

"So can I," I countered, "but that still doesn't tell me why _Alice_ was laughing."

"My guess is that it was something out of the ordinary. She wouldn't have paid any attention to it if it was one of Emmett's normal fantasies."

"Great." I crossed my arms and leaned back in my seat, trying to maintain the shreds of my dignity. "Where are we meeting them, anyway?"

"They decided on some half-rate early-morning breakfast place," Jasper replied, a frown of disgust crossing his face.

"You're kidding, right?" I asked in dismay. "Great. Now I have force down food on top of everything else this morning?"

"Fend for yourself, I don't intend to force anything down my throat. Alice hates it." He sighed. "You can't use the sick excuse, because I'm using that."

"Fine," I muttered. "Never ate breakfast much as a human, either."

*~*~*

"Are you sure neither of you want anything?" one of the girls asked anxiously.

"At least something to drink?" the other added, looking at us over the rim of her coffee mug.

"I'm sure," Jasper replied with a grimace – it was easy enough to play sick, I supposed, with the overpowering scents in the restaurant, and the nearness of all that human blood.

"Rosalie?"

"Don't even bother asking," Jasper spoke up. "Esme's been trying to get her to eat breakfast for months."

"There's a reason Alice weighs more than I do, and breakfast has everything to do with it," I shot back, wincing internally as I caught the angry warning in his eyes. Oh, I was going to pay for the Alice crack once we left. Maybe insulting the extremely thirsty, cranky, ex-soldier vampire's wife wasn't the best course of action.

Our partners glanced at each other for a second before dropping the subject.

*~*~*

"Did you have to make a crack at Alice?" Jasper asked tersely as he slammed his door shut. The car roared to life and he threw it into drive before heading for the parking lot exit.

"I had to come up with _something_," I replied.

"Well, leave Alice out of it next time," he said snidely. "And just so you know, Alice is much lighter than you."

"I'm aware of that, Jasper, thank you," I told him, just as his phone rang.

His face lit up as he opened the phone and cradled it against his shoulder. "Hey, Lissy."

"Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear," I muttered under my breath.

"Yes, darling, I was in the middle of defending your honour when you called," he continued, casting another furious glare at me. "I think I defended it very well… No, of course I didn't say anything in the restaurant." He listened to Alice some more, before saying, "Not so much as a drop of water, Alice. Yes, I will behave myself…"

I tuned him out, rolling my eyes. It was disgusting to listen to the two of them banter back and forth. Thank God that they preferred being far away from everybody else for their secret little trysts. I don't think I could take listening to it.

Speaking of secret little trysts… only six more hours before Emmett and I could run away for the weekend. Six hours. I could do six hours, especially since I'd made Emmett promise the same this morning.

*~*~*

"Mister and Miss Hale, have you been through the entire symposium already?" came the call of one of the accompanying teachers.

Growling under my breath, and hearing Jasper do the same, I closed my book and looked up. "Yes, sir," I answered pleasantly.

"We've only been here for an hour, Miss Hale," the teacher replied sternly. "And Mister Hale, just because we aren't on school property, does not mean that you can use your phone with reckless abandon. Put it away, and if I see it once more today, I will confiscate it, and your parents can come and reclaim it when they meet with the faculty."

"Good luck getting them to do that," Jasper muttered darkly. "They're dead."

"Your guardians, then," the teacher said in exasperation. "Take your bags and go back into the symposium until lunch."

"Yes, sir," I grumbled, packing my book back into the bag. "Thanks a lot, Jasper," I added under my breath. "I was getting to the good part, too."

"He kills her," Jasper replied tersely. "Kills her and then she finds love in the afterlife."

"Is there a book you _haven't_ read?" I demanded.

"Yes, most of yours as there's absolutely nothing original in any of them, but you're reading one of Alice's books," he pointed out.

"No, I'm not," I countered, flipping open the front cover to the flyleaf to prove him wrong.

_Property of A.W. Cullen_

Damn. I hate being wrong.

*~*~*

I tried ignoring Jasper for the rest of the day. He didn't seem to mind that, because the last I saw of him before we were supposed to go home, he was busy evading the teachers and texting somebody – Alice, probably.

At the end of the day, I was waiting at the car for Jasper when the group of guys came up. God, they were worse than teenage girls for going places in packs.

"Hey, it's… Rosalie, right?" the leader said with what I assumed was a flirtatious smile. Oh, boy, he needed to work on his delivery. "Listen, I was thinking that you and me should get together sometime. Pretty girl like you oughta have a real man."

Despite myself, I smiled. He did not seriously use that line. 'Fool should just stop talking now', as Emmett would snicker into my ear if he were here to see this. In a way, I wished Emmett was here: the more jealous he got, the longer I was guaranteed his undivided attention, affection and adoration later. "Really?" I asked. "You see one around here?"

The other boys with him 'ooh'ed and slapped high-fives behind his back as he smirked. "Got a mirror? Can't see myself without one – "

"Get lost," came Jasper's terse growl as he joined me at the car. The dark shadows under his eyes were deeper than they'd been just a few short hours ago, his eyes pure black and the muscles in his neck tense, betraying his stress and slow unraveling. Startled, the boys backed off, the leader casting one last confident grin in my direction. I held out my hand for the keys expectantly, raising one eyebrow as he glowered at me. "You're not driving my car. _Alice_ doesn't even drive my car."

"You're not driving like this," I muttered in a low voice. "You _know_ you can't drive like this, Jasper."

"I'm fine," he growled, even as he pretty much threw his key ring at me and slammed himself down into the passenger seat. "Come on, let's go."

"Yeah, you're not thirsty, not at all," I replied with a roll of my eyes as I turned the key in the ignition.

*~*~*

We had gotten halfway home when Jasper's cell rang. As he flipped it open, I couldn't help but think that a phone call at this time in the afternoon was never a good thing.

"Hey, Lissy," he greeted, a sudden injection of cheer in his voice. "Where are you?" He paused, his face falling. "This is some sort of cruel joke, right, Alice?"

"Don't tell me she got detention," I laughed, even as I was turning back, heading for the hospital Carlisle worked at.

"But Alice, I behaved myself," he pleaded, glowering at me. "I didn't even yell at anybody. _Why_, Alice?"

"Well," I sighed, waiting to merge into the traffic. "This weekend is off to a good start. If Alice snapped, Emmett definitely did."

"Shut up, Rosalie," Jasper snarled. I could hear Alice begging and pleading on the other end of the line. "No, Alice, I'm sorry, I'm not angry at you –"

My phone rang just then, Edward's ring.

"What do you want, Edward?"

"_So what's going on with this weekend? Are the four of you leaving with us, or are you leaving early or late or what?"_

"Meet us at the hospital, okay? Alice got detention and we have to play musical cars."

"_Did she seriously? Wow. I want to see the look on Jasper's face."_

"No, you don't. It could kill."

"_He can borrow my car."_

I hung up without another word. "I'm going to drop you at the hospital, Jasper, all right? Edward's lending you his car to go get Alice. I'll take your car home and meet up with Emmett there."

"And who's driving the convertible back home?" Jasper asked tersely, reaching out to yank the steering wheel.

"Do _not_ passenger-seat drive, Jasper," I snarled.

"Then watch the damn road," Jasper growled. "And answer the question. If I'm picking up Alice, who's driving the convertible? Emmett?"

"Damn, she _did _drive my car today, didn't she?" I exploded. "God, I don't even care how complicated this gets, all right? Emmett does _not_ drive my car."

"And if you don't watch the road, Rosalie, you're not driving _mine_ either!" Jasper roared, yanking the steering wheel just in time to avoid a severe collision.

Speed-dialing Emmett, I changed lanes again, making a face at the woman who cut us off in traffic.

"Watch the road, please, Rosalie," Jasper snapped.

God. This car was like his mistress.

"_Yes, Rose?"_Emmett was quick to answer, and for a minute, my head got spinny, just thinking about what that gorgeous velvet Tennessee voice was going to be whispering into my ear in an hour's time.

Finally, I pulled myself together to relay the plan to him. "Listen, I'm on my way to pick you up, because Alice just called Jasper and announced that she got detention and you are NOT touching the keys to my convertible. Please tell me you don't have detention too."

"_I was a good boy,"_ he said, his self-satisfied grin almost obvious in his voice. I melted again. _"Oh, boy, she's mad."_

"Nothing compared to Jasper, I can assure you," I said, glancing over at Jasper, who was angrily biting down on the sleeve of his jacket to muffle the snarls of frustration. "I'll probably be about forty-five minutes, I've gotta drop Jasper off at the hospital first. Edward's going to lend him his car, and then he'll go back with Carlisle."

"_Then who's driving the M3?"_ Emmett asked in unison with Jasper. Jasper looked ready to kill.

"Pay attention, Rosalie," he growled under his breath.

"Oh yeah. Jasper, you don't need Edward's car. Alice has mine. Tell her to pick you up at the hospital…" I started to say, looking at him.

Jasper flew into action, pulling the steering wheel sharply just as a flurry of horns blared at us. "Rosalie, would you PLEASE watch the road? I am VERY fond of this car, I don't want it totaled!"

"_I'll see you later, baby,"_ Emmett laughed, hanging up just as Jasper snapped at me,

"And I _know_ I don't need Edward's car."

"Would you just stop talking?" I snapped. "And get your hands off the wheel, _I'm_ in the driver's seat!"

"You're _never_ driving my car again, _never_. You hear me?"

"I'm never driving this car again if you're _in_ it!"

"And _do not_ jump Emmett in my car!"

"Ditto goes for my convertible!"

"Alice and I have _class_, unlike you two!"

"Just… shut up."

*~*~*

Oh, and I had been _so_ looking forward to 72 uninterrupted hours alone with Emmett…

The stupid phone rang again. I groaned as Emmett searched for it momentarily. He gave up after a few minutes, returning to our… prior engagements, ignoring the insistent rings. "Leave it," he growled.

"Emmett, we can't," I said finally, reluctantly untangling myself from him. "What if it's Carlisle?"

Emmett growled in frustration as the phone started to ring again, angrily tossing aside various pieces of clothing until he unearthed his cell phone. He narrowed his eyes at the call display, but pigheadedly continued staring instead of picking up.

"Em?" I asked, sitting up slowly.

He tossed the phone aside, silencing the ring swiftly before coming back to me. "Nothing, baby, just Edward. He can wait until Monday –"

No sooner had he said that then my phone began ringing.

"Leave it," Emmett insisted, easing me back down beneath him. "He can wait until Monday."

"That's not Edward's ring," I replied, dread began to spread through my body. "Pass me my purse, baby."


	5. Edward

A/N: *sigh* We're coming to the end. Only three more Cullens to go. And then it's on to Denali and Pain and Pride…

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

There are days that I wish I could hear more, even if I'd rather not hear them at all. Then maybe I'd feel like I had some power to change an unfortunate event.

I was sitting in English class, wondering why I even bothered listening to the wide-eyed, optimistic young teacher (Rosalie and I had both studied Huxley's _Brave New World_ in English class when it had first been published in 1932 – and I've read it quite a few times since then. She couldn't possibly expect to teach me anything new), when I first heard one of them start thinking about it.

_Hope Tyson doesn't screw things up this time. Kyle says the chick is hot as all fire, but his taste in broads can be questionable… Wonder how easy she's going to be?..._

And at that point, his thoughts took a turn for the vile. So vile, in fact, that it was all I could do not to slit his disgusting throat, my old vigilante mindset beginning to resurface. The faceless, nameless girl who was their intended victim this afternoon hovered forefront in his mind for the remainder of the period.

It was all those brain-damaged punks were thinking of all day. The most I could get out of their repulsive minds was that they were planning on hooking up with some buddies over at the other neighbourhood high school to accost some poor sophomore girl. The guys at this school didn't know who she was, exactly, just that their little gang over there had promised them that she was worth risking expulsion and arrest for.

For one horrifying minute, I thought they might've been discussing Alice – God knows that I'd heard thoughts like that the morning I'd nearly killed that Tyson kid – and I even contemplated calling Jasper and Emmett to warn them, but then I thought better of it. None of these punks even came close to matching either of my brothers in size, and the two of them together were a formidable opponent for this number of humans. I doubted even these guys were suicidal enough to risk Emmett or Jasper stepping in – I knew one or both of them would be keeping a close eye on Alice. And the last thing we needed was a hyper-vigilant, stressed-out Jasper in a school full of temptation without Alice there to run her fingers through his hair (and I mean, disgusting though his thoughts turn when she does that, it works wonders on his self-control).

*~*~*

As school let out that afternoon, I had barely left the building before I was on my cell with Carlisle at the hospital. "Carlisle, I'm coming down there. I'm going to do something I'm going to regret if I stay around anybody under the age of 20 any longer."

"_Well, why don't you just go home, then, Edward?" _Carlisle's voice was concerned, and I could almost see the worry in his eyes. _"I don't know what time I'm going to be done here. With my kind of luck today, there'll be a five-car pile-up on the freeway five minutes before my shift ends. Keep Esme company until I get home – she's been calling me all day."_

"The others aren't home yet?" I asked.

"_Apparently not, because she wouldn't be calling every ten minutes if somebody else was home."_ There was a slight irritable tone in his voice. _"My God, will this day ever end…"_

"All right, I'll call her. See you later." Carlisle hung up without further words and sighing, I dialed home.

"_Finally, Carlisle, I've been calling –"_

"Esme, do you even _look_ at Caller ID?" I asked with a laugh.

"_No, Edward dear, I find it stupid. Everybody says who it is when they pick up the phone, anyway. Are you on your way home?"_

I laughed again. "Yes, I am. I hear you've been stalking Carlisle all day."

"_Stalking would imply that he picks up the phone every once in a while,"_ Esme fumed. _"The man can hold a grudge like nobody's business."_

"All right, I'm on my way. I'll be home within half an hour," I told her. Hanging up, I dialed once more – Rosalie this time.

"_What do you want, Edward?"_ she asked tersely. I could hear Jasper talking in the background, and the sounds of his conversation weren't encouraging.

"So what's going on with this weekend? Are the four of you leaving with us, or are you leaving early or late or what?"

"_Meet us at the hospital, okay? Alice got detention and we have to play musical cars."_ Ah. The reason for Rosalie's irritation was revealed. Alice had much more self-control than Emmett. If _she_ got detention, Emmett definitely did. The 'weekend alone' plans were flying out the window at the speed of light.

"Did she seriously?" I asked incredulously. "Wow. I want to see the look on Jasper's face."

"_No, you don't. It could kill."_

"He can borrow my car," I offered. Instead of answering, Rosalie hung up. "Okay. I'll take that as a yes."

… _Wonder how much booze Hayden got for us… not like we need the booze to do a sophomore…_

… _This had better be a damn good chick. I get caught on that school's property one more time and I'm going back to juvvie…_

… _Meeting up at Tyson's place was a good idea, his parents don't give a damn what the boy does, we can talk like nobody's there…_

Growling as the carful of punks passed my car, I turned on my radio and sped up a little to beat them out of the parking lot. Dialing home once more, I groaned at having to abandon Esme. My poor mother had sounded so lonely on the phone… The first year or two in a new place was always like this – when all five of us were in school and Carlisle didn't have enough seniority to take long weekends, and she was alone in the house for hours on end every day. Next year would be better, when Emmett would have graduated and he'd be at home with her, impatiently waiting for Rosalie to finish her year. I didn't get the idea that Emmett particularly wanted to do another round of university this time.

"_Hello?"_

"Hey, Esme, it's me," I greeted with a sigh.

"_I know."_

Chuckling slightly as I remembered her comment about Caller ID, I continued, "I'm going to have to go to the hospital first before I come home. Alice got detention and Jasper and Rosalie and I need to play musical cars."

There was disappointment in her voice. _"All right. Didn't Alice and Emmett take Rosalie's car today, though? Rosalie left with Jasper in his car."_

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Emmett must be driving himself home."

"_Well, do me a favour and tell Carlisle to come home on time tonight,"_ she sighed.

"I will," I replied. "Don't worry, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett will be home soon enough."

*~*~*

"Hey, Carlisle," I greeted quietly, opening the office door.

… _can't believe she thinks she can call after a – Sit down, do homework, be quiet._

"Wow, somebody's miffed," I commented, taking out my science textbook and sitting in one of the office chairs. "What did _I_ do?"

"Nothing," Carlisle muttered in reply, mind still whirling with mutinous thoughts. Esme was giving him a taste of his own medicine today, making him go through what he made Emmett and Jasper go through – and evidently, Carlisle wasn't liking the flavour. _Never doing this again, NEVER, I can't take this…_

Biting back the snicker, I looked up as another stream of mutinous thoughts hit me and the door slammed open.

… _can't BELIEVE she did that, I can't handle another two hours… wonder if Carlisle would call the school and fake a family emergency, spring her early… I have to wait much longer, there _will_ be a family emergency…_

"I can't believe she did that," Jasper growled as he threw himself into the other chair. He shot a furious glare at me when I raised one eyebrow knowingly. _Get out of my head._

Oh, I wish I could, Jasper. Your thoughts aren't pleasant to hear today.

Jasper continued his tirade both verbally and mentally, never _actually_ angry with Alice herself but irritated with the way his day had been going and yet somehow blaming himself for her detention.

"Bitter much?" I interrupted him with a smile.

_You are so effing lucky Alice likes you, or you'd be dead right now. _"Shut up or I'm going to rip your head off," he added aloud as I opened my mouth.

One of Carlisle's colleagues entered just then. _God, and he deals with this on a daily basis… I'd send them back to Social Services… guy must be a saint… _"Ah, Carlisle, can I confer with you a moment?" he asked uncertainly.

"Of course, Richard," Carlisle replied, getting to his feet. _You two seriously need to behave yourselves. _"The two of you, behave," he added, probably for Jasper's benefit. "No fistfights in the hospital. I mean it."

_Oh, trust me, no fistfights. It's going to be a full UFC smackdown._ Jasper's frown darkened even more and he unsuccessfully tried to focus on his book.

"Hospital's the best place for a fistfight," I told Carlisle with a grin.

"I'm serious." _Get him out of here if you think he's not going to make it. I don't care if you take him home or drop him off at school to wait for Alice, but do not keep him confined here if it gets bad._

Carlisle left with his colleague and Jasper and I fell into an uneasy silence, broken only by the sound of Jasper's phone ringing.

As he pulled it out of his pocket, his thoughts took a wild turn from irritation to worry. _Alice… but why is she texting already? Did she get out early – or is something wrong? No, she wouldn't be texting if something was wrong, she'd call. Maybe they couldn't find a teacher to supervise detention, so she got out early. Or maybe – But what if she couldn't call? What if she could only get a text out –_

"Just read the damn text already, Jasper," I muttered. "God, you make worrying a profession."

"Shut up, Edward. One day you might have even an ounce of understanding about why I worry about her so much." Sighing, he flipped open his phone and read the text._ An hour… I can do an hour. And it might even be less…_ Sending a text back, he returned to his book, mind slightly more at ease than it had been minutes earlier. His phone rang again and he whipped it out of his pocket, not even hesitating before he opened it.

I only caught the message in his mind before I immediately tuned him out. Making it worth the wait was not something I wanted to hear him contemplating. Especially not featuring my favourite sister.

Minutes later, Carlisle's office phone started ringing. Sighing, I picked it up from across the desk. "Dr. Cullen's office."

"_Hey, Edward,"_ Alice greeted cheerfully. Jasper's eyes were immediately focused on the receiver in my hand.

_Is that Alice? Is she on her way?_

"_Listen, I'm on my way to the hospital now. Tell Jasper to meet me at the front doors. You might want to call Esme and just go on without Carlisle – there's a five-car pileup in the ER. Actually, tell Jasper to avoid passing by the ER…"_

_Edward, would you answer me?_

"Tell him yourself," I finally interrupted Alice's rapid chatter. Passing the receiver to Jasper, I returned to my science textbook.

"Hey, Alice," he said happily. _Okay, she sounds fine. _"Are you out already?" _What happened, why are they letting her out early?_

Alice answered indistinctly and then laughed. Moments later, Jasper was demanding "What?" as his thoughts went back to worry. _I knew something was wrong, I _knew_ it… Oh. Okay. Stolen cars are fine…_

Sitting up straight, I reached for my keys. "Stole as in…" I asked warily.

I could hear Alice's panicked shriek even without my sixth sense. _"Tell Edward as in some teenage mutant miscreant jacked her BMW! And has probably totalled it by now…"_

"Calm down, Lissy," Jasper soothed immediately, holding his hand out for my keys. "In the end, it's just a car, Rosalie'll buy another one. I'm on my way in Edward's car to pick you up now, all right? I'll be there in about forty-five minutes. Just… stay inside until I get there in case the sun decides to make an appearance, okay?"

Oh, damn. No wonder Alice was panicking so much. No car, school probably closing down and nowhere to take shelter if the clouds cleared off. And she probably knew that they were.

"Go," I said. Jasper took off without a word spoken, his worried thoughts screaming through his mind at a thousand miles an hour. Alice panicking was a surefire way to get Jasper nearly incoherent with anxiety.

Sighing, I sat back down. Jasper would get to Alice in time if he had to drive over the other cars to do it. There was nothing to worry about. He was good to her, and good _for_ her. What could possibly go wrong?

Famous last words.


	6. Esme

*~*~*~*~*~oOo~*~*~*~*~*

I told Carlisle that it had been a bad idea. That nobody was going to handle the stress very well, least of all Jasper and Alice. My newest children were too irrevocably tied up in each other to permit such a denial of themselves. But would he listen? Oh, no. A few centuries of being a doctor had given him a superiority complex. He was convinced that he knew what was best.

And of course, the rules wouldn't apply to _him_. Rules were for lesser beings.

So the fiendish, diabolical plan I'd thought up last night had ulterior motives: he needed to be taken down a notch or two before he got truly insufferable to everybody but me, and he caused a rift in our family relations. I would _not_ be happy if somebody moved out because of him.

But by the time 9 AM rolled around, my resolve was shattered. I was no better at playing this game than my children were. It was beyond me how they got through an entire day like this. So I did what any contrite wife would do: I called Carlisle at the hospital to apologize. And of course, he did what any spurned husband would do: he ignored me.

Great. Now we were bickering like some juvenile teenage couple.

Maybe if I called the switchboard – because he clearly wasn't answering his office line – and had him paged? I couldn't call his pager, because then he'd know it was me and he'd continue this stupid, childish game.

I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt – maybe there was an emergency in the hospital, and he was busy doing his job. I'd call later.

*~*~*

By 2 PM, I knew that he was purposely ignoring me. Half-seriously, I contemplated abandoning him once Edward got home from school. We could go hunt together, leave Carlisle to try and track us down when he got home… It had been a long time since I'd had any _real_ alone time with either of them. Yeah, maybe that's what I would do. Edward would probably bail out once Carlisle joined us anyway.

Only two hours until my children got home…

And until then, there was always *69.

*~*~*

I'd actually managed to fill up his rather considerably-sized voicemail box (and they weren't long messages either) when the phone finally rang, startling me.

"Well, _finally_, Carlisle, I've been calling –" I said, trying not to sound too desperate. A little belatedly, I saw the name on the call display.

"_Esme, do you even _look_ at Caller ID?"_ Edward's laugh met my ears.

Smiling slightly, I replied, "No, Edward dear, I find it stupid. Everybody says who it is when they pick up the phone, anyway. Are you on your way home?"

He laughed again, and my spirits began to lift. Edward would be home soon, and then I would continue this stupid, childish, aggravating game that Carlisle had been insisting on playing. _"Yes, I am. I hear you've been stalking Carlisle all day."_

Oh, it was like Carlisle was daring me to do something about his silent treatment. So Carlisle was perfectly aware that I'd been calling him all day. He'd probably listened to the messages too. Stupid man. "Stalking would imply that he picks up the phone every once in a while," I fumed, getting angrier the longer I thought about it. "The man can hold a grudge like nobody's business."

"_All right, I'm on my way. I'll be home within half an hour."_

As Edward hung up, I couldn't help the smug smirk crossing my face. Oh, Carlisle would never try doing this again. He would regret making me suffer like this.

*~*~*

But barely five minutes later, Edward had called again. This time, I remembered to look at the display. "Hello?"

"_Hey, Esme, it's me,"_ he sighed.

I stifled the urge to laugh. "I know."

There was a short laugh, before he said, _"I'm going to have to go to the hospital first before I come home. Alice got detention and Jasper and Rosalie and I need to play musical cars."_

"All right," I sighed, heart sinking. "Didn't Alice and Emmett take Rosalie's car today, though? Rosalie left with Jasper in his car."

"_Yeah, I guess you're right. Emmett must be driving himself home."_ Edward's voice was slightly mystified.

"Well, do me a favour and tell Carlisle to come home on time tonight," I finally said. 'Since he's not picking up the phone for _me_…' I thought grouchily. 'Of course, if he feels like putting off tonight for longer, that's his choice…'

"_I will,"_ Edward promised, a smile in his voice. _"Don't worry, Esme, Rosalie and Emmett will be home soon enough."_

*~*~*

But they weren't. Finally deciding that Rosalie and Emmett must've decided to leave on their hunting trip early, I buried myself in blueprints for a property I'd been eyeing in Washington State. Just outside Forks, about two, two and a half hours north of Hoquiam – the last place in Washington that we'd lived in. It was a little close to the Quileute lands, and somebody would probably object to living so close to the boundaries – after all, Jasper and Alice hadn't been with us when the treaty was made back then. How would they know to stop at the invisible line that had been drawn in 1936?

Cringing at the thought of those monstrosities going after my unknowing children, I eyed the map next to me again. I'd marked the boundaries of the treaty in blue, the neutrality lines in green. Our property wasn't too far from the town, and the town was neutral. It was far enough from the boundaries of the Quileute lands that there probably wouldn't be any fights.

I heard the garage door open and close twice in the space of five minutes. So _somebody_ had come and gone...

Sighing, I got to my feet and headed for the garage. Inside, I found Jasper's car parked at an odd angle and Emmett's Jeep missing: Rosalie and Emmett, maybe? But why wouldn't they have just kept Jasper's car – and where was Rosalie's convertible?

Chalking it up to one of those crazy things my children did that I would never understand, I returned to my blueprints. I managed to work undisturbed for a couple of hours, reaching Edward at Carlisle's office once for a couple of minutes, before the phone rang again, interrupting my concentration.

_Carlisle Cell_.

I nearly ripped the phone off the wall. "Well, _finally_, Carlisle, I've been calling all day –" Please, if there was a God, do NOT let him tell me he's working a double shift.

"_Esme, stop. Listen to me. Get ready to leave right now. We have to make a run for Denali."_

"What happened?"

"_Don't. Edward and I'll explain on the way." _I could hear Edward howling in the background.

Panic gripped me. "Carlisle, are you –"

"_I'm fine, Esme, we'll see you within the hour."_ He hung up without any further words, leaving me staring at the receiver in shock.


End file.
